Feb. 9, 2026, 6:07 p.m. CT

The Seattle Seahawks are this year’s Super Bowl champions, and attention now turns to the 2026 season. More specifically from a Packers perspective, how they can improve a disappointing campaign and ascend to true championship contender status.

By comparing Green Bay to the standards Super Bowl participants have met in a variety of categories over the last decade and evaluating how they progressed (or regressed) in 2025, a decent picture can be painted of how close the Packers are.

Starting with the positives; Jordan Love very much looks to be a quarterback capable of taking Green Bay all the way. As detailed in this exercise a year ago, the average Super Bowl participant since 2016 has had a passer ranked around sixth at PFF in the NFL in that season.

The Packers’ passing game under Love ranked seventh in 2023, right on the border, but the most impactful development which could have taken them to the next level as a team was Love becoming one of the league’s top tier quarterbacks.

Love took that step in 2025, and ended the year as PFF’s fourth-highest graded quarterback. He will need to maintain that level of excellence next season, especially if he is going to make up for some other parts of the team that are not pulling their weight.

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Green Bay also needed their young group of pass catchers to mature in 2025 after an uneven 2024, and they did just that, ranking seventh at PFF as a group, up from 16th a season ago, and that was without Christian Watson or Tucker Kraft playing full seasons.

That duo appeared to break out to become the kind of difference makers the Packers needed around Love, while Matthew Golden had an encouraging rookie year despite limited opportunities. Jayden Reed should continue to be a valuable part of the offense from the slot as well.

The average Super Bowl participant since 2016 has had pass catchers ranking around sixth, with the Seahawks and Patriots finishing second and fourth respectively this season.

They got there in different ways, with New England relying on more of a deep, high floor group, similar to the one in Green Bay, and Seattle having one of the best individual receivers in the NFL in Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

Romeo Doubs will likely depart in free agency, which will hurt the Packers’ depth, but they still have more than enough pass catching talent to win with.

Green Bay’s pass rush became Super Bowl ready instantly when Micah Parsons came to town, and even with him missing the final stretch of the season, they went from 16th and 18th in the previous two years as a group to the ninth-best pass rush in the league according to PFF’s rankings.

The average team to make the Super Bowl in the last decade or so has been ranked closer to 12th. It seems the Packers should be strong enough even if they do not get much from other players besides Parsons, such is his impact.

The Packers also clear the bar for the quality of their running backs and their tackling. Their backs ranked 12th in PFF’s overall standings at year’s end, and they were actually ranked as the best tackling team in the NFL.

Neither of those are particularly strong indicators of a title contender though, as the average Super Bowl participant has been just above average in both categories since 2016. They have been a below average run defense in the last three years, but this is also not a critical issue generally.

There are key aspects Green Bay must improve in 2026 though, some of which have been longstanding issues, while others were disappointing areas of regression last season.

First and foremost, their ability to protect Jordan Love needs to rebound after a tough campaign. On average, teams playing in the Super Bowl have been fringe top-10 in pass blocking, and the Packers have been on the right side of that line every season in recent memory, until the last one.

They plummeted to 22nd in PFF’s overall pass blocking rankings, due to a combination of factors. Matt LaFleur will hope better injury luck can solve a lot of their issues, but Green Bay will need development from Jordan Morgan and Anthony Belton and is also likely to have a new center.

There is no guarantee they are able to right the ship in a significant way. It is worth noting the Seahawks were ranked only one spot higher than the Packers for the 2025 season, but they had a dominant defense to lean on and make up for some offensive deficiencies.

It appeared Brian Gutekunst made real efforts to improve the team’s run blocking last offseason, which has been relatively pedestrian going back many years. It did not work, as the unit finished 22nd in PFF’s run blocking grades for the second straight year.

Strong running blocking has actually been a decent indicator of a team’s championship bona fides, with the average Super Bowl team participant ranking around seventh since 2016.

Green Bay’s struggles closing out games can at least in part be attributed to their inability to dictate terms and bleed the clock in crunch time. It’ll be back to the drawing board to try to find solutions for a run blocking unit which has ranked either 22nd or 23rd each year since 2021.

Pass coverage was an area that dropped off for the Packers, falling from fourth in 2024 to 13th in 2025. The average team playing in the Super Bowl in the last decade has ranked around sixth, and the Seahawks and Patriots ranked second and first respectively this season.

It can definitely be argued that the overall pass defense was good enough when Parsons was on the field to make life easier on the back end, and like a lot of defensive issues, it is possible to make up for it if the offense is stellar, which Green Bay’s usually is. But after a season in which Nate Hobbs’ Packers career never really got off the ground, and Carrington Valentine did not take a step, there is work to do to the pass defense to pull its weight.

Then there’s special teams, which actually achieved their highest PFF grade as a unit since 2015, ranking 19th, which speaks to the general ineptitude of previous seasons.

It is perfectly possible to make it to a Super Bowl with a bad special teams unit, but the other two phases both need to be excellent, and Green Bay’s defense in particular did not meet that requirement in 2025.

There are things to feel good about, like Daniel Whelan, who was one of, if not the best punters in the league last season. Green Bay also was in the middle of the pack in punt and kick returns allowed in 2025. The next step is not having a critical gaffe that costs them a playoff game.